At a vocational discernment dinner recently at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron took the mic and shared powerful words: “Somebody at my table asked me if I ever had doubts, and certainly, I came very close to leaving the path, leaving the seminary in 1968 in a time of great confusion. But God has stood by me, and I have a sense that as I come to the end of my life, I've done what God made me to do. And that’s, I think, the best testimony anybody could make — it’s the greatest testimony I think any man can make about his life.”
February is dedicated to the Holy Family, and it begins with the Feast of the Presentation, which is traditionally a celebration of consecrated life. It is a good month to mull over the miracle of one’s vocation, whether that be married life, priesthood, or religious life. How was it I knew this was what God wanted from me? And how has He worked His marvels in my soul through the life to which I am called?
Last month, my father died. He and my mother were approaching their 58th wedding anniversary. A wise Sister told me, “God calls us when we have done what He asks of us.” It was a comforting thought, especially because I believe my father really did do what God asked of him. He was a faithful husband and father, and the only thread holding him to life at the end was the desire not to die before my mother — to fulfill, in his words, the promise he made her at their wedding, to love her until death. He did not want to die first because he wanted to shepherd her into eternity. His love for my mother and for me formed him in generosity, patience, thoughtfulness, self-denial. It made him holy.
We come to the doorstep of a church on a particular day, relatively young, and lay down our lives, through the vows of marriage or consecrated life or the promises of priesthood. We have no idea what will come. But that self-gift roots us in the soil of His love so that, tiny seeds, we can break open, sprout, grow, and bear fruit. Our vocation, whatever it may be, teaches us virtue and draws us to God, so that, by the moment of our last breath, we have done “what He made us to do” and become who He made us to be.
“I once was tested about courage,” Archbishop Vigneron concluded, “and as I told you, I came close to being a coward, but God gave me the courage to move forward, and that’s my testimony. And someday — maybe it will be the end of the world on judgment day — I look forward to hearing the testimony of each one of you as we stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus.”
What is your testimony?
Sr. Maria Veritas Marks is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
